The Juneau County emergency management storage building may trade its asphalt floor for a concrete one. The floor has proven insufficient for the storing of necessary materials.

“Basically it turned to dust,” Juneau County Emergency Management Director Gervase Thompson said. “And everything that is in there is covered in dust.”

The building is located near the highway department building at 930 E State Street. “I had to talk to the EM committee in regards to the storage there,” Thompson said.

Thompson said he has received two quotes of “more than $7,000” from separate contractors for a 4-5 inch concrete floor.

The building houses much of the hazmat equipment used by the county.

Juneau County Chairman Alan Peterson said 5 inches was “twice as thick as it needs to be.”

The agenda item was tabled until the next meeting in March.

WISCOM Radio System Update

A scope of work agreement between Juneau County, Elert & Associates and EF Johnson on upgrades, system requirements, and improvements to the WISCOM radio system is being updated.

Thompson said there has been some disagreement over where to put the new transmission and receiving antennas on the signal towers.

“(The) tower here on the justice center, evidently will have to come down,” Gervase said. The new county building’s location would make the tower’s current position unworkable.

The plan is to build a new freestanding tower. “The estimate for that procedure just to put the tower up is $150,000,” Thompson said.

“It never should have been where it’s at anyway,” said Juneau County Representative Lynn Willard.

Construction is expected towards the end of summer 2018.

Hazmat Team update

The future existence of the county Hazmat team was also discussed at the meeting. The county is having difficulty getting enough individuals to join. The required hours to complete hazmat technician training were recently raised from 40 to 60 hours.

Although the classes would be free to the individual, the time commitment is speculated to be the major obstacle to gaining new recruits.

“If we got called to a spill, we’d have to immediately call (LaCrosse Hazmat),” Thompson said. “We have a dispatcher that’s trained and ready to go, but we need three more.”

Peterson asked how many incidents had taken place in 2017 within the county. Thompson stated there had been a reported anhydrous ammonia leak at the Camp Douglas farmers cooperative highway, in July, but otherwise only gasoline spills.

The decision was pushed to March. “See what we find out in March, and decide,” Peterson said.